We celebrated the World’s Most Famous Unknown People at the Cube on 2 April, with a set including music by Connie Converse, Judee Sill and – in person – Andy Skellam and (below) Rita Lynch:

we popped along the M4 for a set at the Ivy House in Nunhead on 23 April;

we donned appropriate cossies for an Apes Alliance benefit at the University of Bristol on 28 April;

and we played two sets at the Big Love Festival in Hay-on-Wye on 30 April/1 May.

We then split ourselves in two on the weekend of 7 May: while most of our number played at the Park Row Sustrans Festival in Bristol, several of us hopped on Eurostar to join our friends in the Paris Fantasy Orchestra’s for their Bowie Party.

Autumn’s been a busy season for the Fantasy Orchestra. First there was our set at the Priston Festival near Bath, then for Halloween we took over the Kuumba Centre in St Paul’s, Bristol for a night of macabre revels.

The mostly new repertoire included songs by Dr John and the Specials, and Jeffrey Lewis’ If You Shoot the Head You Kill the Ghoul, which is fast becoming an orchestra favourite.

A scaled-down Fantasy Orchestra played at this year’s Music on the Hill, organised by the Friends of Troopers Hill in St George, Bristol.

A sizable audience of picnickers, strollers, kids, dogs, and other species native to the hill’s protected grassland listened to the FO’s takes on Hendrix, the Beatles, Morricone, Bowie, and Bollywood’s RD Burman.

The foyer of the Colston Hall resounded to the strains of the Fantasy Orchestra at full tilt, during a free one-hour set on Friday 27 February (before the Bournemouth Symphony played in the main hall).

The playlist featured film music by the likes of Nino Rota, John Barry, Ennio Morricone and RD Burman, and, as news broke of the passing of Leonard Nimoy, the FO offered its own tribute:

There’s also a multi-angle edit of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly from the same set:

a lite FO team performed the Navidad, still ringing in our ears from the 21st december performance at the Trinity, in the tiny bedminster bar El Rincon. Stan was MC and trumpet, George leader and lead vox. Other soloists were tony, marcos and john. Ole, on bass recorded and filmed the whole thing.